cwellen-ga:
Thanks for your Question!
The history to which you refer, is actually the AutoComplete feature
in Internet Explorer. Since the search field on the Google.com webpage
is a form field much like any other form field, the AutoComplete
feature will remember your previous entries so that they are available
to you should you want to select them again in the future.
Understandably, this can be annoying if you do not want other people
to see what sort of searches you have run in the past. There are two
ways that you can take back control over this.
The first way is the most drastic. In Internet Explorer, if you go to
the Tools menu, then select Internet Options..., then click on the
Content tab, you will see a section called Personal Information. The
first button in this section is the AutoComplete feature. Click on
this button.
On the subsequent window that appears, you have several options. Since
the search history you are trying to get rid of is considered form
data by Internet Explorer, you can unselect the "Forms" checkbox so
that Internet Explorer no longer remembers anything that you type into
any form field. This will affect all form fields, not just the Google
search box, so consider this carefully before you proceed. For most
people, this feature is not that useful, especially since you can use
other applications such as the Google Toolbar to remember and
auto-fill certain repetitive form fields such as your name and address
info for online order forms. So, feel free to uncheck the "Forms"
checkbox to disable this part of AutoComplete. Even if you do not
uncheck this box, now is your opportunity to flush out the stored
information using the "Clear Forms" button on this window.
If there are only some entries in the search history that you wish to
get rid of, but you wish to keep the rest, then there is another
solution. First, go to the field in question, in this case the
Google.com search field. Now, click in the field, and click again. The
search history should pop-up as a scrollable list underneath the
search field. Hit the Down Arrow on your keyboard, and the first entry
becomes highlighted. Hit the 'Delete' key on your keyboard, and you'll
see this entry disappear. Now, if you use the Down Arrow key to scroll
through this list, you can selectively delete individual entries
without affecting the rest of the entries.
Since this feature is built into Internet Explorer, one final,
extremely drastic measure would be to stop using Internet Explorer and
use an alternative web browser instead. I think that, with the two
methods described above for taking back control over AutoComplete, you
can avoid having to look for a new browser.
I hope this helps!
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher |
Request for Answer Clarification by
cwellen-ga
on
05 Apr 2004 05:12 PDT
Thank you for a wonderful and quick answer! I'm sorry I was not very
clear, however. I am using a Macintosh, G4 laptop, running system
10.3.5 (an incredible computer) and using Safari, not Internet
Explorer. I have tried to do what you suggest in Safari, but it
doesn't all fit. I found the AutoFill section under Preferences for
Safari, and I can deselect "Other Forms," which solves the problem by
taking away the entire list of searched items. However, if I only
wanted to take a few items from the list, leaving the rest, I haven't
been able to figure this out on Safari, using the directions below.
Is there a way to do that?
Thanks,
C. Wellen
|
Clarification of Answer by
aht-ga
on
05 Apr 2004 08:32 PDT
My apologies! It was rather presumptious of me to assume that only
Microsoft would be silly enough to do this to its users, I guess Apple
has committed this error as well!
Unfortunately, not having access to a Mac with Safari right now, I can
only go by the information available online. That information, found
in Mac user forums such as
http://www.codepoetry.net/archives/2004/02/09/safari_12_pausing.php
indicates that the deepest level of editing you can currently do in
the Safari saved-info file is by site, ie. deleting everything saved
for Google.com for example. This is accomplished by using the Edit...
button next to the 'Other Forms' option in the Preferences > Autofill
window.
From the various posts I've seen, the Autofill data is stored in a
file, but the file is not editable using conventional means; it is
best to edit it using the Edit... button above. In the current
version, it does not appear that you will achieve the level of
granular control that you are hoping for, short of periodically
flushing out all previous Google.com searches.
As Apple is still developing Safari, this might be a good opportunity
to submit a future request that they add this capability. The best way
to do this is to use the Feedback button in Safari (the one that looks
like a bug).
Hope this helps,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
